Feifei Bian

FEIFEI BIAN provides practical strategic advice to companies, private equity sponsors and their portfolio companies and investors at all stages in connection with mergers and acquisitions, venture financings, minority investment and other strategic transactions across a wide range of industries and jurisdictions, focusing primarily on the life sciences, healthcare, technology and entertainment and media industries. Feifei also regularly advises publicly traded and private companies regarding corporate governance matters, disclosure policy, and issues arising under the federal securities laws and the rules and regulations promulgated thereunder, and state corporate law.

She was recognized in Variety’s 2021 Legal Impact Report for her corporate work in various transactions in the media and entertainment industry. Feifei is a member of SidleyWomen.

Some notable recent engagements include representing:

Healthcare/Life Sciences

• Hoffmann La-Roche in its acquisition of Carmot Therapeutics Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company dedicated to developing therapeutics for people living with metabolic diseases, for an upfront payment of US$2.7 billion and additional milestone payments of up to US$400 million.
• SanReno Therapeutics, a clinical-stage company specializing in the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative therapies for kidney diseases, in its acquisition by Novartis, a global medicines company.
• ReCode Therapeutics in its US$50 million extension to its Series B financing, for a total of US$260 million in Series B funding.
• ADARx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing RNA-targeting therapeutics, in:
  • its US$200 million Series C financing.
  • its US$46 million Series B-1 financing.
• Crown Bioscience in its acquisition of the IndivuServ business unit of Indivumed GmbH.
• Omnicell in its US$225 million acquisition of 340B Link from Pharmaceutical Strategies Group (PSG).
• BaseHealth, Inc. in its acquisition by Genalyte, Inc.
• Vivo Capital in its agreement to invest US$150 million in New Frontier Corporation (NYSE: NFC) (NFC), a special purpose acquisition company, in connection with its initial business combination transaction to acquire United Family Healthcare (UFH).
• Hoffmann-La Roche in its collaboration and option to acquire Versant incubator, Inception 5, an early stage multiple sclerosis development program.
• Medivation (NASDAQ: MDVN) in its acquisition of worldwide rights to the breast cancer treatment, talazoparib, from BioMarin Pharmaceutical (NASDAQ: BMRN) for US$570 million.
• Smith & Nephew plc in its purchase of Blue Belt Holdings, Inc.

Technology

• ContextLogic in its US$173 million sale of Wish Platform to Qoo10.
• Shenzhen Longsys Electronics Co., Ltd. in its acquisition of an 81% interest in SMART Modular Technologies do Brasil – Indústria e Comércio de Componentes Ltda.
• 7GC & Co. Holdings Inc., a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company, in its US$580 million business combination with Banzai International, Inc. (transaction pending).
• Nova Labs, Inc. in its acquisition of FreedomFi Inc.
• Zywave, Inc., backed by Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. and Aurora Capital Partners, in its acquisition of Strategic Insurance Software.
• DigiCert, Inc., backed by Clearlake Capital Group, L.P., TA Associates, and Crosspoint Capital Partners L.P., in its acquisition of DNS Made Easy.
• Clearlake Capital Group, L.P. in its:
  • agreement to sell Brightly Software, Inc., a software-as-a-service (SaaS) provider, to Siemens AG for US$1.575 billion of upfront cash consideration, along with US$300 million in cash earn-out payments, for a total of US$1.875 billion.
  • acquisition of DigiCert in a joint partnership with TA Associates.
• Ivanti, Inc. in:
  • a strategic investment by Charlesbank Capital Partners, LLC.
  • its proposed acquisition of Cherwell Software.
• Faraday Future in:
  
  • its proposed US$3.4 billion business combination with Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. (PSAC), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
  • an agreement for a new standby equity line of credit with an affiliate of Yorkville Advisors.
  • a resolution to its governance dispute with FF Top Holding LLC, resulting in dismissal of the lawsuit against the company and board of directors.
  • a financing commitment of US$90 million plus the acceleration of an existing commitment of US$15 million.
  • a US$135 million financing agreement.
• Palo Alto Networks, Inc. in its US$420 million acquisition of CloudGenix Inc.
• Vector Capital in its sale of CollabNet to TPG, its sale of 20-20 Technologies to Golden Gate Capital and its acquisition of Longitude Licensing.
• Pandora (NYSE: P) in its acquisition of AdsWizz for US$145 million in a cash and stock transaction.
• Angie’s List in its combination with IAC’s HomeAdvisor business, creating a new publicly traded company, ANGI Homeservices Inc., with a combined value of approximately US$5 billion.
• PayPal Inc. in its acquisition of Swift Financial, a leading provider of working capital solutions to small businesses.
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE: HPE) in its acquisition of Silicon Graphics International (NASDAQ: SGI) for cash consideration of US$275 million, net of cash and debt.

Entertainment, Sports and Media

• The Gersh Agency (the only remaining major talent agency without outside investment) and the Gersh family members, in a strategic partnership with private equity firm Crestview Partners, to support the agency’s next phase of growth.
• Connor Schell of Words + Pictures, and the co-founders and minority equity holders of 44 Blue Productions and Dorsey Pictures, in the formation of The North Road Company, to produce scripted and non-scripted film and TV content across the U.S. and international markets, with debt financing provided by Apollo and equity financing provided by Providence, including the merger of Words + Pictures into North Road, the elevation of Connor Schell to President, and the acquisition of Red Arrow Studios’ U.S. assets including 44 Blue and Dorsey Pictures.
• Connor Schell (longtime chief creative officer at ESPN and driving force behind 30 for 30, O.J.: Made in America, and The Last Dance) in the formation and financing of a joint venture with Chernin Entertainment, to produce high-end unscripted audio-visual content.
• Partners Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman (the team behind Star Wars: The Last Jedi) in launching film and television production company T-Street, and entering into a joint venture and first look arrangement with Valence Media’s MRC Studio to fund T-Street’s operations.
• Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, and certain of their affiliates in various corporate transactions.

Other

• United Airlines Ventures in its joint venture with Tallgrass Energy and Green Plains to develop and commercialize a novel sustainable aviation-fuel technology that uses ethanol as feedstock.
• West Marine (NASDAQ: WMAR) in its sale to Monomoy Capital Partners for a total equity value of US$337 million.
• United Continental Holdings, Inc. in the proxy contest launched by Altimeter Capital Management, LP and PAR Capital Management, Inc.
• Hennessy Capital Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in its acquisition of Daseke, Inc.
• Con-way Inc. in its sale to XPO Logistics, Inc. for US$3 billion.